New role, same passion: Vrabel brings player mentality to coaching

Aug. 22, 2013

Mike Vrabel is in his second season as Ohio State's defensive line coach. / Greg Bartram/USA TODAY Sports

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COLUMBUS — He was seen as a stop-gap hire two years ago with the Ohio State football program in a state of turmoil.

Now, it’s more about what former Buckeye great Mike Vrabel is doing as coach and recruiter to help close the gap between his alma mater and Southeastern Conference schools.

“He attacks coaching the same way he attacked playing,” OSU head coach Urban Meyer said of Vrabel. “You spend as long as he did in the NFL, you understand an extreme work ethic.”

Still, no one was quite sure what qualifications Vrabel brought to coaching in a major program when he was hired by OSU in 2011. Some speculated he was little more than best buds with interim coach Luke Fickell, himself a convenient, desperate hire one month before training camp opened.

It was all a mess in the wake of Jim Tressel’s Memorial Day ouster as a result of NCAA violations.

Some figured Vrabel would be part of the coaching purge when Meyer took over before last season. Instead, Vrabel was retained and moved from linebackers coach to overseeing the defensive line.

Really, it was one of those no-brainer moves. Vrabel has the OSU and NFL pedigree to command respect from the players. He also dons three Super Bowl rings from playing for the New England Patriots that will catch the attention of distracted or on-the-fence recruits.

As a player, it was up front where Vrabel was twice an All-American and Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year.

It probably didn’t hurt, either, that Vrabel’s current boss (Meyer) and former boss (Bill Belichick) are good friends. In fact, in working with his linemen, Vrabel has adopted one of Belichick’s mantras: Make the hard look easy.

“I just try to get them to play as hard as they can and with toughness and technique,” Vrabel said. “I think I can help in all three of those phases.”

The challenge for Vrabel is completely re-tooling the defensive front and turning those players — not a single senior among the leading candidates — into a cohesive, disruptive unit.

Fans are excited about the prospects of increased TFLs brought about by the elevated RPMs of a young, but quicker front line. Sophomore ends Adolphus Washington and Noah Spence are the headliners.

Last year, team captain John Simon often played out of position on the outside. He was blessed with many gifts, but foot speed wasn’t one of them. Spence and Washington will be veritable track stars by comparison.

“He coaches us like we’re NFL pros,” the 6-foot-3, 292-pound Washington told the Toledo Blade. “He knows what it takes. Everything he says, I guarantee everybody in the room is listening to it.”

Vrabel need not worry about keeping up with his linemen. Anybody who has seen him race the length of the indoor practice field, from one drill to another, know it’s the other way around.

“Emotion needs to be involved,” Vrabel said. “The professionalism is building routines, knowing how to practice, knowing how to stay on your feet, knowing how to make the hard look easy. That’s what we always talked about in New England.

“That’s being professional, not walking in every day in a suit and tie and not having a briefcase.”

Even though the Buckeyes finished 12-0, things weren’t clicking on defense last year.

It wasn’t until Meyer stuck his nose in the defense’s business, switching Zach Boren from fullback to linebacker and strongly encouraging more blitzing, that things changed for the better. It was necessitated after giving up 87 points in back-to-back shootouts with Nebraska and, shockingly, Indiana.

Now everyone seems to be on the same page.

In Vrabel’s case, he spends a lot of waking hours thinking about coaching — and he’s awake a lot.

“I never woke up in the middle of the night as a player — ever,” Vrabel said. “I hit the pillow, woke up the next morning and went as hard as I could because I could control the situation.

“As a coach, I rarely sleep through the night. I wake up and wonder what so and so is going to do, are we going to be able to play this technique .... I worry about a lot more than I ever did as a player.”